The Tenth Congress of the R.C.P.(B.)

March 8-16, 1921[1]

Written:See below.Published:See below.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      3nd English Printing,

      Progress Publishers,1977,

      Moscow,Volume 42,

      pages281c-284a.Translated:Bernard IsaacsTranscription\Markup:D. WaltersPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      (2003).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

1OutlineOf A Speech At A Meeting Of Supporters  Of The “Platform Of

Ten[2]

1)Topstrata (bureaucratic) in the Workers’ Opposition
....

2)bottomstrata’ actually linked with the rank and file,
really proletarian...

3)mostresolute ideological struggle against the
syndicalist and Makhayev deviation (at the top) of the Workers’ Opposition

4)congressdecision condemning in principle the
syndicalist, anarchist, Makhayev deviation of the Workers’ Opposition

5)congressdecision (by roll-call vote) against leaving
any faction or trace of factionalism

6)threatof expulsion from the Party and transference from
the C.C. to alternate membership ((by decision of C.C. + Control Commission
+ all alternate members +

two-thirds??))[3]

7)takereally proletarian elements into the CC.

8)penetrate,study, investigate, explore...

9)anumber of speakers (at the congress) to put this line
through should be elected immediately

10)electa bureau of the “platform of
Ten”...

11)resolutionon the report of the C.C. (a) on greater
unity and discipline generally, and in the C.C.; (β) on less
bureaucratism in the Orgbureau

+13)congressdecision on pressreportingof the
Party congress: tone down factional disputes, demonstrate unity.

2RemarkOn The Amendment Of Rafail (B. B. Farbman)To The Resolution On Party Unity March

16[4]

Idon’t think this amendment ought to be adopted. When this
discussion started we did not keep to the division in Pravda—political
articles got mixed up with discussionarticles. We say here in an emphasised but not ultimatum form that these
should not be dragged into the press.

3RemarkOn Kiselyov’s Speech Concerning The Resolution On Party Unity
March

16[5]

Comrades,I am very sorry that I used the word
“machinegun” and hereby give a solemn promise never to use such words
again even figuratively, for they only scare people and afterwards you
can’t make out what they want.(Applause.)Nobody intends to shoot
at anybody with a machine-gun and we are sure that neither Comrade Kiselyov
nor anybody else will have cause to do so.

4RemarkOn Marchenko’s Amendment To The Resolution On The Anarchist And
Syndicalist Deviation March

16[6]

Tosay this in the name of the congress is far too
prohibitive. I move that this amendment should not be adopted, without, of
course, depriving the C.C. of the right to recommend, and in case of need,
to concentrate all this in C.C.publications: but I think it would be too much to have a congress ban on
the issue of such publications locally.

[1]TheTenth Congress of the R.C.P.(B.)was held in Moscow on
March 8-16, 1921. It was attended, according to the report of the Mandate
Commission, by 694 voting delegates and 296 delegates with a voice but no
vote, representing 732,521 Party members. The items on the agenda were: 1)
Report of the Central Committee; 2) Report of the Control Commission; 3)
The trade unions and their role in the country’s economic life; 4) The
Socialist Republic in a capitalist encirclement, foreign trade,
conces-sions, etc.; 5) Food supply, the surplus-appropriation system, the
tax in kind and the fuel crisis; 6) Questions of Party organisation; 7) The
Party’s current tasks in the national question; 8) Reorganisation of the
army and the militia question; 9) The Chief Committee for Political
Education and the Party’s pro- paganda and agitation work; 10) Report of
the R . C.P.’s representative in the Comintern and its current tasks; 11)
Report of the R.C.P.’s representative in the International Trade Union
Council; 12) Elections to the Central Committee, the Control Commission and
the Auditing Commission.

Thecongress passed decisions on cardinal issues
pertaining to the country’s political and economic life. The work of the
congress was guided by Lenin, who delivered the opening and closing
speeches and made reports on the political activities of the C.C., the
substitution of a tax in kind for the surplus grain appropriation system,
Party unity and the anarcho-syndicalist deviation, the trade unions, and
the fuel question.  Lenin drafted the major resolutions for the
congress. See also present edition,Vol. 32, pp. 165-271.

[2]Themeeting of the supporters of the ’,Platform of Ten" referred to
here apparently took place on the eve of the congress or early in its
proceedings-on March 8 or 9, 1921.

[3]Thispoint was elaborated by Lenin in Point 7 of his preliminary draft
resolution on Party unity adopted by the Tenth Congress of the R.C.P.(B.)
(see present edition, Vol. 32, pp. 241-44).

[4]Theamendment of Rafail (R. B. Farbman) to Point 4 of the resolution on
Party unity proposed adding that moot points "be discussed at general
meetings and in the press". The amendment was rejected.

[5]A.S. Kiselyov came out against Point 7 of the resolution on Party
unity, in which the Central Committee was authorised to

resort to the extreme measure of expulsion from the Party in the case of
C.C. members guilty of factional activities. In his speech Kiselyov stated
that Lenin, in describing the significance of this point, had used the
expression “mounting machine-guns”.

[6]Theamendment of K. I. Marchenko applied to Point 6 of the resolution
’On the Syndicalist and Anarchist Deviation in Our Party" (see present
edition, Vol. 32, p. 248). Marchenko pro-posed to include in the resolution
that discussion publications be issued only by the C.C. of the R.C.P,(B,)
or by the Regional Bureaux of the CC. The amendment was rejected.